OCZ RevoDrive 240GB PCIe SSD Full Performance Review

Introduction, Packaging and Specifications

Introduction:

Yesterday we received a pre-production sample of the new OCZ RevoDrive for evaluation. This is an entirely new product for OCZ, placing a pair of SandFocre controllers (lifted from their Vertex 2 line of SSD's) behind an integraged RAID solution, all packaged neatly on a single PCIe 4x full height card.

Here it is, in the flesh!

So, what should I put this yummy piece of storage gear up against? Hmm...

A pair of ioXtreme's and an ioDrive!

Packaging:

We may as well compare the packaging of all solutions:

From left: ioDrive 160, ioXtreme 80, ioXtreme Pro 80, RevoDrive 240

Specifications:

Capacity: 120GB / 240GB

Flash type: MLC

Interface: PCIe 4x (Gen. 1)

Max read: 540 MB/sec

Max write: 480 MB/sec

Sustained write: 400 MB/sec

4KB random write (aligned): 75,000 IOPS

Seek time: 0.1 ms

Power consumption: Idle 3W / Active 8W

And now for the ringer:

BOOTABLE (!)

Other PCIe SSD solutions out there are not bootable (most notable the Fusion-IO line of SSD's). Since the RevoDrive builds on a simple RAID controller, it sees the same benefits, such as a low footprint driver that can be executed by the Windows installation environment, enabling windows to be installed directly on the RevoDrive itself!.

Read on for the full review as these drives duke it out in true celebrity deathmatch fashion!